A review by mcklusky
The Philosophy of Horror: Or, Paradoxes of the Heart by Noel Carroll

3.0

A bit of a rough read but with some real gems in it. It sets out on a fool's errand to categorically define a genre and as a thesis I think it fails. But as a discourse it had some valuable insight. It finds itself in need of a ruthless editor -there's a lot of fat to be cut. The author often states a concept clearly only to then proceed to muddy the waters with unnecessary jargon and over-exposition of accessible concepts. This feels like a PhD dissertation that was never revisited prior to publication. Clearly a lot work went into it but it would have benefited by leaving some on the cutting room floor.